"It's a serious business being funny"

Dr Kiku (also known as Colin) and Dr Mattie were our first Giggle Doctors in the UK. Mattie took the time to tell us about his experiences working with children in hospital and his 53 years of bringing laughter to families.

“I frequently visited Great Ormond Street Hospital, and even though it is a very big hospital. we couldn’t rush or try do our work quickly. Each room and each child is completely different, you’re walking into a new environment at each bedside which is the challenge –but I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much and did it for so many years. I used to start many visits by saying my name was Dr Mattie and that I was a Laughologist, that was my term, that I was from the Laughology department!”

“I once visited a patient who had just arrived, they had severe eczema and asthma, in a corner looking very down…within the course of the afternoon they visibly progressed and before I left the floor I went to check on them and their mother was just overjoyed and in tears and hugged me. “Thank you so much – just look at the difference in them you know this fantastic thank you so much”and they respond with cheers of “yeah!”in the background – it was charming and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left a room or ward and punched the air saying “yes I did that!”Punching the air, I’ve done it loads of times thinking wow, the power of laughter. You know, it has been 53 years of me in clowning and it’s just such a wonderful job to make people laugh continually.”

“Working in a hospital was always a challenge, and I liked that, that challenge of performing. If you’re a good entertainer, (and there are lots of entertainers that aren’t adventurous and thoughtful), I think the skills required in working in hospitals is probably the most difficult of all performing. There’s no stage, people viewing you from all sides, varying ages – you have a lot of challenges in one space and each space is different challenges. But that’s what makes the job! I don’t think any of the people that work for Theodora finish the end of the day and say, “Oh that was a boring one”, we work really hard as hospital performers because there’s so many different layers to it. After all, It’s a serious business being funny.”